A small, family owned Bodega in the – Requena Region

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DOMINIO DE LA VEGA, OUR HISTORY

Dominio de la Vega is located in the heart of the Requena-Utiel region. From this enclave surrounded by vineyards, we are devoted to the aging of wines and the production of Cavas , registered as Designation of Origin for Utiel- Requena and Cava. Geographically speaking, the region is a circular plateau with a diameter of 45 km at an altitude of between 697 m () and 907 m () above sea level.

Among other water courses, it is irrigated by the Magro river, fed through ravines which descend from the high areas of Camporrobles and Sinarcas, guaranteeing a continuous flow that makes up a series of alluvial terraces and gives rise to “LA VEGA”. Sandy and conglomerate soils predominate, with many clay and marl bands. It has a typically Mediterranean climate, although with marked Continental characteristics due to its altitude and distance from the sea. The average annual temperature according to the observatory of the Enological Station is 13.9°C. The winters are long and cold and the summers are short with high temperatures at midday, dropping during the night due to the Solano or Levante winds. Rainfall is scarce, with an annual average of 430 litres per square metre, which most often falls after the grape harvest. With these climatic and geographic characteristics, it is no surprising that vine growing has been a basic way of life for the inhabitants of this region.

If we explore its history, the remote origin of wine making is placed in the area of Villares (Kelin) where in 1995 a few grape pips were found in the sediment of the main living-area of a dwelling dating from the 5-6th Century BC (amphoras dating from the 7 th Century BC have also been discovered).

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Vine growing has been part of the agricultural activity in the area since the 13 th Century, and it became such a renowned way of live that Alfonso X the Wise bestowed the title of BINADEROS to those in Requena who were guardians of the vines three months before the grape harvest. The Requena 1479 bylaws insisted on having guardians and prohibited the introduction of ‘foreign wine’ and, in the same way, the VEDADOS of the Villa de Utiel of 1514 ordered that no inhabitant “dare to harvest the grapes until ordered by the authorities of the moment so as to let them ripen”.

Thanks to this tradition and the flowering of vine growing and wine making in recent times, consequence of the coming closer of the region to the Port of and the powdery mildew crisis in Europe, we find today the breeding ground required for the production of wines and Cavas with the essential analytical parameters so that experts rate them as QUALITY WINES with Designation of Origin. And this, from the most traditional grapevine vitis vinifera varieties in the area: Bobal , Tempranillo or Cencibel , Macabeo and Garnacha , to which Cabernet Sauvignon , Chardonnay and Merlot have been added in recent years with excellent results.

At Dominio de la Vega, we believe that this environment is unbeatable for the production of wines and Cavas , and that is why we acquired a house-cellar that is known as Casa del Conde , close to San Antonio, in Requena, in the geographical centre of the region, whose construction was commissioned by the Count of Villamar at the end of the 19 th Century .

After great deal of work, we managed to restore and recover its winepresses and underground cellars which are being used as cellars where the wines and Cavas lie for as long as necessary to aging without rush, in whole darkness and peace, at a perfect temperature.

The choice of the Casa del Conde had a lot to do with its location amongst the vines, as it avoids the need for lengthy transport of the grapes from the vines to the cellar. It has to do as well with being a peaceful and sunny place and, to a certain extent, with its orientation and the shadow effects of the old pine trees, a landscape where light and contrasts pervade.

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MEET OUR WINES, FEEL THE SENSATIONS

We produce wines and Cavas according to traditional methods, with loving care and great devotion. Nevertheless, this has not prevented us from using the latest wine-making technology to carry out, supervise and control a complex process by which the grapes of our vineyards are transformed into fine, elegant, pleasant and enjoyable wines, which help us to express our emotions freely and to obtain greater happiness, if possible, for an instant, and to make this instant endure amongst us.

At Dominio de la Vega, we strive to produce wines that offer pleasant sensations to those who drink and taste them. We therefore take great care with the process and strictly control the whole wine- making process, from the grapes in the vineyard to the bottle on the table and up to that triumphant moment when all the effort put in is rewarded by the appreciation of our consumers.

Our work starts in the vineyard. At the time of pruning, the leaf buds are already controlled, and this continues throughout spring and summer. The same happens during the sprouting and growth of the vines. Before the grapes are taken to the cellar, the ripening process of the grapes is carefully monitored; they are picked depending on their general state and on the results of the different analyses which tell us the best time to harvest them. The grapes are then finally transported to the cellar in such a way as to ensure that they suffer as little damage as possible.

AGED RED WINES

We use small grapes from old high-yielding vines to produce these wines. Depending on the harvests, we only select those vines with enough quality to produce more or less quantity of this wine. To produce aged or reserva wines, besides excellent raw material, one needs to put in a lot of care and devotion. The maceration process is fairly long and helps us to achieve the

Pag. 4/9 deep ruby red colour we strive for in all our wines and to bring out the tannins and anthocyanins of the wine in a balanced proportion.

We use French, American and Hungarian oak barrels for the aging process, seeing as each kind of oak adds a special character to the wine, and we reduce the clarification to a minimum to avoid the loss of polyphenols. We use the same policy for the filtering process. The rest is done by a carefully controlled temperature, patient decanting and maturing and the silence of the cellars.

These are long aging wines and, due to their special characteristics, we can only offer them in small quantities; of course we have great expectations for these wines, and look forward to, when the time arrives, the great pleasure of drinking them. Remember that these wines should always be drunk from wide Bordeaux glasses, and if possible served from a decanter, or at least let the wine breathe for a while, opening the bottle some time before drinking.

CAVAS (CHAMPAGNOISE METHOD)

Besides still wines, at Dominio de la Vega we also produce Cavas. This drink is said to be “the king of wines”. A good white grape variety, only those authorized by the Consejo Regulador del Cava (Cava Regulating Body), pressing under pressure, and a minimum of nine months in the bottle are enough to explain the product we produce, although in fact, it goes beyond this. As with white wine, we select the best grapes of the Macabeo varieties in the area as the basis, and the Chardonnay variety as compliment, and the Garnacha variety for rosé Cavas and also Pinot Noir .

We only use the flower must obtained from the first pressing to produce Cava, and after a first fermentation, it remains in the bottle for a minimum of twelve months for semi-sec Cava, eighteen months for brut and twenty-four months for brut nature, after which, during the disgorging process, the yeast sediments used for the second fermentation are removed, adding a small amount of expedition liqueur to round off its bouquet .

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We believe we have produced an exquisite Cava with an elegant and persistent bubble, which should be drunk from a flute glass at a temperature of not more than 8°C. If it was above 10°C, please do not drink it, save it for another moment. Do not leave it for the desserts either, enjoy it with your favourite meals.

We produce our wines and Cavas as best we know how. We trust we have done a great job. Even so, we do not want to judge the results. This concerns you, the consumer. We will merely inform you of each and every one of the steps we take to produce wines of which we can only say that we are proud of.

DELVING DEEPER INTO OUR PASSION

If you wish to delve deeper into the passionate world of wine, come with us on the adventure of following the gestation and birth of a wine, step by step, in this article. To start with, and most importantly, a desire to do things properly and with affection is a must. And this, from the very moment the leaf buds add greenness to the vines in spring. The bottle of wine or Cava you may hold in your hands is the end result of a long process into which we have put a great amount of affection and effort, attempting to give the most of ourselves in each and every one of the steps of the process.

The Macabeo variety is the basis of our white wines. This variety starts ripening around mid August and reaches its peak condition the first two weeks in September, when a perfect balance between acidity and sugars is reached, in such a way that the level of acidity is as high as possible without an over-ripening of the sugars. This large grape produces slightly acidic wines, hence their fresh fruity bouquets .

The grapes are pressed freshly picked to obtain only the flower must (the first pressing) which, after being naturally decanted, is fermented at a controlled temperature (16 – 18°C) for as long as necessary, at about fifteen days, varying from harvest to harvest. After the fermentation and filtering process, the wine is

Pag. 6/9 quickly bottled to preserve its own natural bouquet . This wine is best drunk the year after its harvest, preferably well chilled.

At the beginning of October, with the ripening of the Garnacha variety, these grapes are picked for our Rosé Cava . They are briefly macerated in our cellars to extract their colour. After the pressing, the flower must obtained is decanted. The fermentation happens at a controlled temperature of 16 – 18°C in stainless steel tanks during the harvest period. During the first few months of the year, with this wine as a basis, the so-called triage process starts with a second fermentation of the wine in the bottle and an aging process that lasts more than twelve months.

All this gives the Cava its peculiar colour, a deep and bright strawberry pink tonality. The rather small amount of sugar added to the expedition liqueur gives it a smooth and slightly sweet taste, softening its natural acidity without losing the fragrance it provides.

For the rosé wine , we use the Bobal variety which is known for its fruity bouquet , a taste reminiscent of fresh strawberries, and its striking bright pink colour. It is a local variety, well acclimatized to our area, seldom found outside this region. Also being a large grape variety, it begins its veraison the first two weeks in August, and reaches its peak ripeness during the first two weeks in October. This grape is never macerated for more than twelve hours and should be drunk in the same way as a white Cava .

We follow the same process for the white Cavas as we do for the rosé , except that we use grapes from the Macabeo variety. We therefore get an extremely beautiful clear straw-coloured wine during maceration and after fermentation, which maintains its fragrant taste while being smoother and more elegant.

The sort of grapes used for this Cava leaves a clear mark on the base wine and is accentuated and rounded off during its second fermentation in the bottle. We thereby obtain Cavas with an exceptional bouquet , balanced acidity and different personality.

Carefully selected grapes of our Macabeo variety are used too to produce the special Cavas . We obtain

Pag. 7/9 wines with greater complexity, bouquet and taste, which are then blended with 40% of the Chardonnay variety that has been left on its lees in new oak casks up to its triage.

The second fermentation and aging is carried out in our cellars at an average temperature of 16°C until it is perfectly aged, which is never less than 18 months for the brut, 24 months for the brut nature and 36 months for the Artemayor Cava. The result is a pale yellow Cava which gives off a very fine, plentiful and persistent bubble, with very complex and well balanced aromatic tonalities, a slightly sweet palate, although very smooth and pleasant, and a dry aftertaste.

None of the Cavas should be drunk at a temperature of over 8°C.

Our young red wines are the result of a blend of the Bobal and Tempranillo varieties. The first variety gives them the characteristics mentioned above for rosé wines, whilst the second variety gives them their full-body and smooth tannins: a true balance. Vinified separately, using the same process, the grapes have a cold pre-fermentation maceration process for about 24 hours before fermentation, which does not last for more than seven days, with the aim of not extracting too much tannin. The wine is then bottled a few months later in order to preserve its varietal character. This wine may be drunk in full splendour up to one year after its harvest and better at not a too high temperature.

We use a wine with similar characteristics to our young red wine to produce our oak-aged wines, even though the tonalities from the barrel give them some complexity and refinement. The varieties used are Bobal , Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon , all of which are individually controlled during their ripening, harvesting, vinification and aging. Its aging period depends on the harvest and its characteristics, although it never remains in the barrel for more than six months or less than three. This wine should be drunk at its best moment, during a period two years after its harvest.

The selection of the grapes to be used to produce aged wines, as Crianza or Reserva follows the criteria of good aging and grape health. The best lots of the Bobal , Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo varieties are processed separately depending on their ideal moment. Their maceration process starts at a controlled temperature of 15°C and ends at about 28°C in order to develop enough body for the wine for its subsequent aging in barrels.

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Each variety remains in French, American and Hungarian oak barrels for an average of seven to fourteen months, after which it is blended before being bottled. This wine has a deep colour with little change in its tonality. It has a complex range of ripe fruit aromas (prune) with spicy tonality. It is a full-bodied wine, smooth but intense, which is promised a long life.

N.B.: Due to the special characteristics of our wines and cavas, we can only offer them in limited quantities.

We would be very glad if you could come to visit our Bodega:

Carretera Madrid – Valencia, Km. 270,65 E46390 SAN ANTONIO /Requena (Valencia) – SPAIN

Tel.: +34 962 320 570 - Fax.: +34 962 320 330

www.dominiodelavega.com

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